BIOMED GETS TURNED ON ITS HEAD
by Ginny Sciorra

Dr. Harel Rosen, director of Saint Peter’s Medical Technology Center for Infants and Children (MedTech Center), said it can take up to 20 years for the fruits of research to trickle down from adults to children and infants. He also said he intends to turn that model on its head.

In August 2003, Saint Peter’s University Hospital, Drexel University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology joined forces to create the MedTech Center. The center will conduct biomedical and biotechnological research to benefit infants and children first, which can then be “adapted the other way,” according to Dr. Rosen. Several projects have already begun, one of which uses non-invasive infrared technology to measure oxygen levels of tissue located deep in a newborn’s brain. The ultimate goal of this research is to detect and prevent brain disorders.

“We can no longer afford to wait for technology to come to us,” said Dr. Rosen. “We have to be the spark that launches the quest for new technology.”